deciding which paint brands should be
used by the professionals.
Just how much the enthusiasm for
DIY is waning at the moment among
consumers in Europe is difficult to gauge.
A lot of the publicly available sales
figures on decorative paints do not differentiate between purchases made by
DIYers and by professionals. Across
much of Europe the two groups use the
same retail outlets.
There are also variations in attitude
to DIY not only between countries but
also between different social and income groups.
The Germans and French still have
high levels of confidence in their DIY
skills according to a survey last year
of 17,000 men and women by the UK-based Kingfisher plc, one of Europe
largest home improvement retail groups.
This showed DIYers from both countries
could tackle complex jobs like buildings
an extension or installing a kitchen.
“Expenditure on both DIY and professional home improvement is increasing (in Germany) but the DIY share is
growing,” said Christian Koch, consumer manager, consumer panels, at GfK,
Nuremberg, Germany.
A study this year by Euromonitor
International Ltd., a London-based market research organization, of the Italy’s
DIY market concluded that after cooking, DIY is still the most popular hobby
in the country, which has only recently
come out of a recession. “It is attracting more and more consumers, who see
it as a way to save money and avoid the
extra expense of paying third parties to
improve their homes,” Euromonitor said.
Economic conditions seem to be a major influence on DIY spending. In Sweden,
whose economy has been performing
relatively strongly during the European
economic downturn, the share between
DIY and professionals sales in decorative
paints has been around 50/50, according
to the estimates by Tikkurila, the Finnish
paint company active in Scandinavia and
neighboring Russia.
But in Finland, whose economy has
been doing less well, and in Russia which
has been plunged into a recession, the
DIY share has been considerably higher.
“Currently there is roughly a 70/30
split between DIYers and professionals in
Finland and Russia,” said Minna Avellan,
Tikkurila’s investor relations manager.
“With economical conditions difficult at
the moment in both countries, people are
eager to do decorating jobs themselves to
save money. The longer term trend, howev-
er. is towards professionals doing more of
the decorative renovation work as the econ-
omies of the two countries improve. This is
inevitable as people become wealthier.”
In the UK, evidence of a switch to use
of professionals is most marked among
higher income groups. A survey in the
country by Houzz, a U.S.-based interna-
tionally-expanding company providing
an internet platform for connecting home
improvers with professionals, found that
90 percent of UK homeowners hired a
professional for renovation work.
“The 9,500 respondents in the survey
came predominantly from higher income
groups with 19 percent having second
homes,” explained Andrew Small, managing director of Houzz UK.
Despite the overall increase in DIY
share in Germany, a similar survey by
Houzz in the country showed 77 percent
of homeowners renovated their homes
with professional help last year, with 49
percent hiring painters.
Market researchers and other observers of the European decorative paints
market believe, however, that there are
underlying factors which in the longer
term will lead to decreases in the DIY
share of the sector and also transform the
social profiles of DIYers themselves.
As males become less willing to do
DIY, women are becoming more interested in some countries, like the UK, in doing renovation work themselves which is
already helping to maintain existing consumers sales levels of decorative paints.
“(Despite) evidence of consumers accessing the services of professional decorators, the retail DIY market in the UK
for paint remains very strong (with)
people still keen to decorate within their
homes themselves,” said Jenny Hall, decorative paints marketing director in the
UK and Ireland.
Although there was a boom in DIY
sales in many European countries in the
1990s and early 2000s, the next generation has been less committed to doing
home improvements themselves with
many lacking the requisite skills.
“The shift towards use of professionals or do-it-for-me (DFM) will become
much more evident over the next decade because of the increasing numbers
of elderly and large numbers of younger people who have not learned how to
do DIY,” said Ralf Rahmede, general
manager of the European Federation
of DIY Manufacturers (Fediyma),
Cologne, Germany.
As a result of these changes coatings
companies have been adjusting their
marketing strategies. “We are stepping
up our marketing to professionals because they are becoming more important,” said Avellan.
AkzoNobel has been helping DFM
consumers by introducing a service for
the accreditation of decorating professionals to ensure that homeowners gain
the benefit of the highest standards.
“Our company philosophy is to em-
power and inspire both professionals and
DIYers not only be confident with colour
but to apply it skilfully,” said Hall. ”We
have therefore developed specific learning
aids and tools which help consumers and
professionals to visualise colour schemes.
Further, to help decorators build on and
improve their skills, we provide training
and advice about application techniques
and product knowledge.”
Flugger, a Danish-based decorative
paints manufacturers, is using its verti-
cally integrated chain of 560 retail stores,
half owned by itself and half franchised,
in Scandinavia and Poland, to provide
more specialist knowledge to both pro-
fessionals and DIYers. Already some
of its franchised stores are owned by
professionals.
“Our priority is to support our products by making greater use of the expertise of the store staff,” explained
Ulla, Mathiesen, Flugger’s communications manager.
As home improvement, even decorating, becomes more complex because of
new technologies and materials, the provision of specialist knowledge behind renovation products will become vital. CW
